Tanzania 2011 - part 4 The Serengeti Birds

After the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater it was time to move off through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area towards the Serengeti National Park and the Naabi Hill Gate. On the way we passed the turn off to Oldupai Gorge (also known as Olduvai Gorge), however this deserves a day on its own and it wasn't on our itinerary. Immediately we saw giraffe, zebra and hartebeest as well as countless wildebeest. What a day this turned out to be - but you will have to wait.

More photos of the birds and animals in the Serengeti can be found here.

First the Serengeti birds.

African Fish Eagle, Grumeti River.

 This eagle is very common and, standing 75cm with a wingspan of 2m, is unmistakable with its pure white head. On a previous trip to the Selous in 2009, we found a huge baobab tree with large cat fish skulls on the ground many kilometres from the nearest river. There was a nest above where the eagles had been raising  their young on fish. A powerful, graceful bird with a sharp beak and fearsome talons.

(True bird photographers wouldn't like this photo because of the background is not blurred enough. This photo was taken at 300mm with the lens wide open at f/5.6. My budget doesn't extend to the $5-6,000 for an f/2.8.)

A rather inconspicuous bird, a female, trying not to look too
 interested at what was going on nearby.

This bird is a masked weaver and is watching a nearby male doing his best to impress her. What an amazing spectacle to see the weaver at work tucking pieces of grass here and there and in no time having the main structure on the nest looking as solid as could be!



Masked Weaver male at work.



Great Crowned Crane

These delightful birds, just over 1 m tall, were seen each day where we were near water. Their habitat being swamps, lakes and grassland. They are easily confused with the Grey Crested Crane which is very similar except for the colour of the crest.

Grey Heron



Hamerkop, Mbalageti River

The hamerkop builds huge nests near water and feeds mainly on frogs and tadpoles.


Lappet-faced vulture

Circling vultures are always a sure sign on a recent kill and are used by safari guides to find prides of feeding lion. This species of vulture are most useful at kills in that their beaks are the sharpest of all and good for slicing open the toughest of hides.


Magpie shrike



Male Kori Bustard

 We found this bird late one afternoon strutting his stuff. This display is to attract females in the breeding season but there were none in sight.

Same bird, same place, next day.

The next morning we found him doing his stuff again. This time he had been successful and there was a rather shy female some distance away. We didn't stop long enough to see how successful he was though.

Maribou stork

 The following bird is a coucal but at present I have two possible identifications for this one.


Immature black coucal, Centropus grillii
or Intermediate white-browed coucal, Centropus superciliosus

At this point I am more inclined to go with the latter identification. I will clear this up in my mind and update this page.



Silverbird, Empidornis semipartitus

The silverbird was flitting around the bushes at the airstrip prior to our departure from The Serengeti back to Zanzibar. (This image is much better than what you get if you do a Google image search!)

Thanks to Janet Walker in Norfolk UK and her birdie friends for providing some clues and also Nahumu, our guide from 2009 at Lake Manze.

Ostriches and topi

The pink necks here tell us that this is the Common Ostrich, Struthio camelus rather than the similar looking Somali ostrich Struthio molybdophanes which of course has a grey neck and is only found as far south as Kenya anyway.

Secretary bird

The imposing Secretary bird (1.4m high) can be found on the open savannah strutting around purposely looking for its favourite food, snakes. We didn't see any being eaten but we did see some small tasty snack sized snakes slithering across the road.

White-bellied Bustard

This is the best of my bird photos from the Serengeti. Next the animals in the Serengeti.

Safari organised expertly by Michael Sweeny of Zanzibar Travel

More photos of the birds and animals in the Serengeti can be found here.

(Email: info@zanzibartravel.co.uk  )

Previous blogs: Zanzibar, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater.